SETTING THE TABLE Current trends in plating, menus, accessories and other key tabletop elements
By Don Douloff
W
hen creating tabletops that pop, it’s crucial to remember one rule of thumb: the eye eats first. Even before customers have taken a bite or a sip, your tabletop has made an impression and, if properly conceived, has started the dining experience on the right note. “Restaurants are having a lot of fun and stepping outside the box,” Tableware Solutions Ltd. president Bill Horosko told ORN. “Our lifestyle has created the demand for a higher perceived value on every aspect, and the restaurateur is not isolated in this fact. Everyone is trying to outdo the other.” According to Horosko, adding another dimension to service “is not overly expensive”—good news for restaurateurs’ bottom lines. Olive wood appetizer platter. (Photo courtesy of Tableware Solutions)
ON THE MENU When it comes to menus, the physical document is taking on inventive formats, reflecting customers’ changing needs, expectations and the experience restaurateurs aim to deliver. With the rise of mobile devices, people have become more accustomed to high-density information presented clearly in a small format, says Chad Roberts, creative director at Chad Roberts Design, a Toronto graphic design studio with a number of restaurants in its portfolio. “Traditionally, a large, imposing menu has indicated quality and sophistication,” Roberts told ORN. “We’re finding that today a large menu is seen as overbearing and creates an expectation of high prices. Large menus are also cumbersome and can inhibit socializing and conversation around the table
Wooden plank bar menu, from Menu-plus.
due to their size,” he said. In contrast, menus that are smaller, visually engaging and concise “feel informal and approachable and communicate quality through execution,” says Roberts. In the same way that a chef opts to let fresh, top-notch ingredients carry a dish, a small well-designed menu “conveys a sense of understated confidence.” Roberts says date-stamped daily menus are also trendy, which “imply that a chef is in tune with seasonal availability and is constantly creating new dishes based on currently available ingredients.” Date stamping can also foster a more unique experience, since a particular menu may only be available the day customers visit. This adds an element of unpredictability to return visits and makes successive meals more of
Geraldine’s menu, by Chad Roberts Design.
an event, Roberts says. As more restaurants attempt to find a middle ground between casual and fine dining, secret menus have emerged as a way to cater to high-value customers without alienating more casual diners, he said. “Secret” menus could, for instance, prevent sticker shock on higher-priced items that may alienate some guests, since these items would be moved to a smaller menu available only by request. The result: a main menu that caters to casual guests and another menu that creates a feeling of individual attention and exclusivity for patrons interested in a higher price point, says Roberts. Restaurant operators could further enhance the distinctiveness of the experience by setting the two menus apart via different-coloured folders and varied graphic elements. Roberts also points out “the recent focus on small and shared
plates has resulted in a growing number of restaurants adopting a menu-as-order-form format.” The order form design could, for instance, be used for specialized menu offerings such as the seafood listing, updated daily as availability changes, with one copy presented to each table along with the regular dinner and cocktail menus. Roberts adds presenting only one menu to each table encourages guests to order shared plates and promotes a communal dining atmosphere. Jean Francois Goldschmitt, owner of Menu-plus, a Quebec-based menu design company, says heavy covers have fallen out of fashion, in favour of those that are “light and soft, leather like.” New leatherette is almost non-scratchable, nothing sticks to it and even pen ink can be washed off. Goldschmitt is also seeing a “big comeback of colour printed menu covers with a clear-plastic Lexan no-scratch finish.”